


The Last Centurion

by bendingwind



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-10
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bendingwind/pseuds/bendingwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Your father was a great man,” the Doctor says, staring down at her with empty eyes.</i></p><p>For the <a href="http://spoiler-song.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://spoiler-song.livejournal.com/"><b>spoiler_song</b></a> ficathon, prompt by <a href="http://scandaloussteph.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://scandaloussteph.livejournal.com/"><b>scandaloussteph</b></a></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Centurion

“Your father was a great man,” the Doctor says, staring down at her with empty eyes.

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Melody says, closing her eyes. “I know who and what he was, and I know what he did.”

“He couldn’t—”

“He abandoned everything he believed and sided with an army that had kidnapped his wife and child. He betrayed you and set you up to die. My father was your Judas, I know, but Doctor—he did it all so that he could protect me. Do you think I _don’t know that!”_ She’s screaming by the time she finishes, but still she does not cry. Instead, her eyes are empty and hollow.

The Doctor slowly lowers himself to sit beside her.

“River…” he says, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder.

“He told me stories about you, when I was little. Everyone else told me what an evil man you were, a destroyer of worlds and lives and peace. Every day I would go through their brutal training and all the time, they would tell me stories of you, stories to make me hate you. And then… at night, I would go back to our quarters, and Dad would tell me about you. The real you, the adventures you had, the lives you saved. There were days that I only went on for those stories, Doctor. And my father… my father was a good, good man. The best man I’ve ever known. Even in the end, he didn’t betray you.”

Melody leans over to caress her father’s cooling cheek. “I didn’t…” she says. She finally notices the gun in her hands, and lays it gently on the floor. “Why?” she asks the Doctor, even though she already knows that he doesn’t have the answers.

He can only shake his head. “River—I mean, Melody,” he says, but she stops him.

“River. Melody… Melody was a little girl that loved her father and wanted more than anything in the world for him to be proud of her. I’m not… I’m not Melody anymore. I don’t deserve to be called his daughter.”

“River,” he says with finality. “He would understand.”

“I know,” she answers, and she gets to her feet. She shakes her head slowly, as if to clear it, and then starts speaking again. “They’ll kill me and engineer another weapon if they know what happened here. We’ll have to… have to…” her voice breaks, and she clears her throat before continuing. “We’ll fake your death, and I’ll say he tried to protect you so I was forced to kill him. They would expect that of me.”

“They’ll punish you. He was a hero to them,” the Doctor points out. He sounds as numb as he looks.

“He _was_ a hero,” she responds with finality, and she moves away to rearrange the scene.

* * *

  



End file.
